New J.R.R. Tolkien novel, Beren and Lúthien, published 100 years after it was originally written

J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of that obscure series you may have once heard of, Lord of the Rings, has a new novel on bookshelves – originally written a century ago.

Titled Beren and Lúthien follows two lovers, a mortal man and an immortal elf, whose story eventually becomes part of The Silmarillion.

Published by HarperCollins on the 10th anniversary of the last Middle-earth book, The Children of Húrin, it has been illustrated by Alan Lee, who won an Oscar for his work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, and was edited by Tolkien’s 92-year-old son Christopher.

Tolkien wrote the story in 1916, after coming home from World War I and the Battle of the Somme.

According to Tolkien expert John Garth, via the BBC, the writer was particularly inspired after taking a walk in East Yorkshire with his wife Edith, and the moment she danced in a glade filled with white flowers, which would later become a crucial scene in the story.

The names Beren and Lúthien are even carved on the gravestone Tolkien and his wife share in Oxford’s Wolvercote Cemetery.